Posted by Hilarion on 10/08/00 11:25

MattMika <mattmika@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I need to store player numbers in a DB with a range from 0-99, ie. 00,
> 07, 99, etc.. These will be entered by way of form. Whats the best way
> to do this?
>
> I've messed with char(2) and validating but,
>
> if (ereg("[^0-9]{2}", $_POST['pnum'])) {

This regular expression allows anything that has two chars which are
NOT digits somewhere inside, so "aa", "aaaa", "1aa2" etc. will be
accepted. It should be something like this:

if (ereg('^[0-9]{2}$', $_POST['pnum']))

> or
> if (is_numeric($_POST['pnum'])) {

This will allow numbers without leading zero, numbers which are not
integer, exponential values, negative values etc. Should not
accept text values (like 'aa').


> return true even if 'aa' is entered. I assume its seeing the chr(#).

In case of the regular expression you used it would act like that,
but in case of "is_numeric" it should not.


Do you really need the leading zero ("00" instead of "0", "01" instead
of "1")? If so, then use CHAR(2) in DB, and the regular expression
I gave above (or use <select> in your <form> to allow only selection
of valid values). You can (and should if it's possible) also use
CHECK constraint in your DB. Something like this (assuming the column
in the DB is called FLD):
(SUBSTR( FLD, 1, 1 ) BETWEEN '0' AND '9') AND
(SUBSTR( FLD, 2, 1 ) BETWEEN '0' AND '9')


Hilarion

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